Dementia Rates Poised to

Published olnine at The Toronto Star, March, 2010.

For eight years, Ann Marie Wilson sought
marriage counselling for what she believed to be her poor communication
skills.

Conversations she was having with her husband, Carl — to
whom she had been married for 39 years — were going around in
interminable circles. They seemed to be constantly misunderstanding each
other and, gradually, everyday routine discussions started to become
major headaches, putting a strain on their relationship.

“It was
driving me nuts,” Ann Marie, 68, says from her New Hamburg home. “I
couldn’t understand where he was coming from and he couldn’t seem to
understand where I was coming from. Often I’d have to stop him and ask,
‘Where are we in this conversation?’ ”

She blamed herself for
being a “witch” and being impatient, and her adult children scolded her
for being unreasonable.

It wasn’t until they discovered that
Carl, 72, had Alzheimer’s disease that the pieces started to fit
together.

Scenarios like this one are expected to multiply
exponentially in Ontario over the next decade, as cases of dementia are
expected to increase by 40 per cent to more than 255,000 people.

In its report, 10 by 20: Ontario
Action Plan for Dementia, released Wednesday at Queen’s Park, the
society calls on the province to make dementia a health priority and
provide support for patients, caregivers and professional health-care
providers.

The report focuses on key areas, such as launching a
public awareness campaign on prevention and early diagnosis, caregiver
support, a better-trained dementia workforce, greater research
investment and provincial leadership.

“We want the government to
make dementia more of a conscious focus of attention,” says David
Harvey, chief member services officer of the Alzheimer Society of
Ontario. “Because the majority of services and investments made come as a
result of dementia.”

Dementia is often at the root of many
investment decisions in the health-care sector, Harvey explains, but is
rarely acknowledged.

For example, he says one-third of
alternate-care hospital beds are occupied by people with dementia.
(Alternate care patients are those in hospital waiting to be discharged
or transferred to another facility like a nursing home.)

Raising
public awareness also means emphasizing the roles that diet and
lifestyle can play in preventing or delaying the onset of dementia, says
Dr. Sandra Black, director of the neurosciences research program at
Sunnybrook.

“Some of the most important information from the
last 10 years shows us that the risk factors for heart disease and
stroke are the same for dementia,” Black says.

That includes
lifestyle-related risk factors, like poor diet, lack of exercise and
obesity.

“What that means is that there’s a lot within our power
to protect our brains against the changes that go on in aging,” she
says. “It’s a very important message, that people can do something about
it.”

Recent research suggests that physical activity is just as
important as mental exercise for the brain, she adds.

“That came
as a shock. Everyone has been emphasizing mental activities, but it
turns out that physical activity is just as important in optimizing
brain function and blood flow.”

Carl has taken that message to
heart. While he’s always been physically active, exercise is now a part
of his daily routine. As a former half-marathon speed walker, he walks
up to 6 kilometres around the neighbourhood every day and plays
shuffleboard with friends.

He can’t ballroom dance with his wife
anymore, because he can’t remember the steps. Nor can he write
Christmas or thank-you cards, or solve math equations. Sometimes words
escape him in conversation, and he describes calculators as “machines
with numbers.”

But he’s still a sprightly man with a bright
attitude and is active in the Alzheimer community.

The couple
joke he’s “living the life of Reilly” now, participating in community
programs for Alzheimer’s patients, which include morning workshops
reviewing current affairs, music and exercise. But he counts himself
among the lucky ones.

“I would like to tell people two things
about the illness,” says Carl, who also takes medication for his
condition. “It’s not contagious, and you still have time after
diagnosis. You can still have quality of life.”

Dementia by the
numbers:

• The number of Ontarians
with dementia is expected to rise by 40 per cent from 181,000 today to
255,000 by 2020.

• Families and friends
spend 87.1 million unpaid hours caring for people with dementia. By
2020, that will increase 65 per cent to 144 million unpaid hours.

• The total economic burden of dementia in Ontario is
expected to increase by $770 million per year, to almost $18 billion by
2020. That includes direct, indirect and lost opportunity costs.

The 10 by 20: Ontario Action Plan for Dementia proposes a 10-step
plan that includes:

• Launching a
public education plan on dementia.

• Enabling
early diagnosis.

• Increased access to
community support programs.

• Introducing
flexible workplace policies for family caregivers.

• Strengthening dementia-specific training in health
and social service sectors.